7.2.2 Properties of the input data

Astrometric information consisting of position and, where available, parallax, proper motion and attributes derived from the parallax was ingested in our catalogues. In this processing the positions have been used for the creation of our cross-match catalogues and the parallax with associated uncertainty in our supervised classification and in all of the specific object modules. The astrometric data reduction available at the time of variability processing was a precursor of the final astrometry published in Gaia DR2, as explained in Figure 7.2. Therefore small deviations in used parallaxes are to be expected, for example in the attributes employed for classification, or the absolute magnitudes for the long period variable module.

CU5 photometry from July 25, 2018 to May 23, 2016, i.e. 22 months, was the main input for our variability results in Gaia DR2. It contains the $G$, $G_{\mathrm{BP}}$ and $G_{\mathrm{RP}}$ photometric bands. Although per-CCD data were available for a subset of the sources, such data were used by the module short time-scale, but excluded from publication in Gaia DR2. The Bronze sources as defined in Section 5.4.3 were not investigated.

RVS instrument data were not available for the variability processing for Gaia DR2.

Astrophysical parameters were not available for the variability processing for Gaia DR2.

As described in Section 7.2.3, we selected sources with either $\ge 2$ $G$-FoV transits or $\ge 20$  $G$-FoV transits for two different processing paths, which partly overlapped in some of the final stages.